C.R.Narayanaswamy (CRN) has recorded his family history and given a copy to Janardhanan of the MCS family. We get to learn that the family hailed from T.Narsipur (Thirumalcode Narsipuram) in Karnataka. They had left all their properties behind and migrated to Sathyamangalam. CRN was born to Ramaswamy and Seethammal on 23/8/1907 in Somanur. His birth star was Avittam and he states that he was born on Varalakshmi Vratham. The family had been known as ‘Cheyyur’ family. Their gothram had been the Bharadhwaja. CRN had done his schooling at the village school and his college education at Coimbatore. He had been brought up by his uncle Venkita Giri. His uncle had a bakery and soda factory. He was also in the business of sugar and coffee seeds. The nephew used to help out after his school hours. The shop had been known as ‘Giri Shop’ and it was earning a lot of money. Venkita Giri had purchased 10 acres of land in Cheyyur and sugar candy used to be brought for selling in Coimbatore. Unfortunately Venkita Giri had stood as a guarantor to his friend and lost a lot of money in the process.
Venkita Giri was shocked by the losses and he passed away. CRN had been bequeathed with all the wealth by his uncle and therefore he sold some properties and jewellery in order to clear the debts. Narayanaswamy maintained his family with the income and he had been an income tax assess. We get to know that he was paying an income tax of Rs.12 and 8 Annas those days.
Eventually the Katteri Chettiar family had stepped in. They had been the customers at the shop for years. CRN handed over his business to his younger brother on the advice of Chettiar and became a part of his endeavours. Both of them approached G.D.Naidu and Chettiar got five buses from him. They had to get the buses built through TVS and approached Anantharamakrishnan of Simpson & Co for fuel. Eventually fuel pumps had been opened in Coimbatore, Mettupalayam, Coonoor and Ooty. Chettiar had purchased a Pontiac car for himself.
The Chettiar family purchased lorries and they were involved in the construction work at Bhavani Sagar dam. They visited Mysore and met T.Chowdiah, the musician. The chronicle tells that a building was given to Seetharama Rao of Dasaprakash in Ooty as per the wish of Chowdiah. The musician had opened a music school in Basavangudi in Begaluru and CRN had visited it in the company of his son. CRN Iyer had been a constant companion for Chettiar of MCS. Both of them had visited the Shirdi Baba Temple and quite a few pilgrimage sites in the south. CRN had attended the sixtieth birthday of Chettiar at Thirukadaiyur and he had been honoured on the occasion. He carried a big conch on his head on behalf of Chettiar.
CRN tells us that MCS was managed at the office level by Ramakrishna Iyer and Doraiswamy Chettiar. The Finance Minister C.D.Deshmukh had been given a grand party after the Kundah work. CRN had garlanded and greeted Pandit Nehru during one of the visits of the Prime Minister. MCS Bus Company Chettiar had built a special van for pilgrimage and CRN Iyer had travelled along with him to a number places like Kuttralam, Madurai and Rameswaram. He talks about Chettiar (Chinnathambi) participating in the activities connected of the Perur Temple. Diwan Bahadur C.S.Rathinasabapathy Mudaliar had presided over the ceremonies. Chettiar and CRN had visited Mysore for the Dasara and also the Durbar ceremony because of T.Chowdiah. They got introduced to the Maharaja of Mysore by T.Chowdiah and visited the Chamundeswari Temple under the instructions of the Maharaja.
The local Congress office had been functioning at ‘Thulasi Bhavanam’, the residence of Iyer and Chettiar had worked for the victory of C.Subramaniam from Coimbatore.
CRN talks about his marriage to Thulasi Ammal, the daughter of K.C.Ramaswamy who was well versed in Thiruppugal. His disciple had been T.M.Krishnaswamy an advocate from Madras. The couple were blessed with Gopalakrishnan and Nagarajan. CRN seems to have requested Rathinasabapathy Mudaliar to allot space for a Vinayagar Temple those days. He had also been to Guruvayur and got a chance to meet the son of the Raja of Kollengode. The son of the Raja of Kollengode took him to the Ananthapadmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivandrum and the Maharaja had served him food while serving the other Brahmins too. T.N.Menon, the son of the Raja of Kollengode became a good friend and he was given a party in Coimbatore by CRN. Subsequently T.N.Menon and Narayanaswamy Iyer visited Kaladi, the birth place of Adi Sankara. They had visited the place as per the wish of Sir C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer. His Holiness Chandrashekhara Bharathi Sankaracharya of Sringeri was in Kaladi at that time and C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer had requested all the learned souls to visit Kaladi and have a darshan of the great Saint. CRN knew Kannada, Tamil and English. Therefore he was made to stay in Kaladi in order to help the devotees visiting Kaladi. Sankaracharya Chandrashekhara Bharathi had been pleased with the work.
The Maharaja of Trivandrum had visited the Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple on the request of T.N.Menon. He had visited Guruvayur and stayed there for 3 days. CRN had been blessed with an oppourtunity to dine with the Maharaja of Trivandrum. It had been a rare privilege to dine with royalty. CRN had also visited a number of temples in Kerala with the help of T.N.Menon. This gave him an oppourtunity to meet a number of learned scholars. He visited Mookambika at Kollur, Udupi Sri Krishna, Dharmasthala, Subramania and a few other places in Karnataka. The Pejawar Mutt Swamiji had given a Thulasi Mala to C.R.Narayanaswamy. He had performed a Kumbabishekham at Sulur on the request of the Wing Commander.
CRN states that he was lucky to attend over 30 Kumbabishekhams and that he had over 12 coins connected with them. He had been preserving them in his house.
Its interesting to note that Sir C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer had been in the Temple Reorganisation Committee. CRN had been invited by Sir Ramaswamy, the Chairman of the Committee to give his opinion regarding temple re-organization. CRN had given a typed letter with recommendation at the District Board Hall in Coimbatore those days. He states that there were more than 25 people in the committee. CRN recommended that the temple tanks will have to be cleaned and a library was required in each temple. Also that special prayers should be held under the supervision of the officials.
C.R.Narayanaswamy had been involved with the old Congress party and took part in the sale of Khadi too. He had met Gandhiji, Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, Sathyamoorthy, C.Rajagopalachariar and several other leaders during the years of the freedom struggle. He had also visited the residence of P.D.Asher in Tirupur along with a number of leaders connected with the freedom movement.
Its possible to understand that C.R.Narayanaswamy was well connected, interested in the well being of the society and was blessed with good communication skills. These qualities had won many hearts and his main support had been from the MCS family. Individuals like C.R.Narayaswamy had been silent contributors and his chronicles throw a lot of light on his work. Good public relations will add value to the people concerned.
—Rajesh Govindarajulu
C R Narayanaswamy, The Silent Contributor To The Welfare of The Society
